--- Underground Labyrinth

2:30 AM , December 14

[You entered Empire Farmlands. Monsters: Fat Rabbit(F), Sneaky Rat(F), Giant Earthworm(E), Wild Dog(E), Hunter Eagle(C+)]

Just outside the outer walls, large farmlands spanning tens of kilometers can be seen. There are also monsters of levels 1–20 here that spawn, and hundreds of thousands of low-level players spawn camping them.

'Hoh? These players must be the low-level gold-farming slaves I've been hearing about. Tsk! Poor people... Truly, if you don't have the power, your life is at the mercy of these damned world powers! These people should be under those hostile ones. Now, I have more reason to mess with you bastards. Just you wait...'

With a dark face, he ran even faster without looking back. This place's monsters are too weak to give him experience as well, so there is no reason to stay. His destination is a town a few miles away from here to make a savepoint and find some opportunities. With his speed, which rivals the level 200+ Agi players if there are any, he'll reach it within half an hour or so.

From time to time, on his map, he will notice a secret realm or a field boss with elite-rank and above and stop by to clear them; some monsters with interesting skills are also on the menu. He needed lots of equipment and spell/skill books to be put in his future guild warehouse. Guilds should be loaded with resources to keep the members motivated and their loyalty high.

All is thanks to Alice, whom he did thank in his mind for having an unlimited storage space for this, as he can hoard items as much as he wants. And speaking of Alice, he sent her to sleep for 1 month, but he upgraded the lifestyle skills he obtained from Beginner's Village and the rest that he bought in the Trade House first before upgrading the system. It took a huge chunk of exp out of his exp bank, and the lifestyle books he bought cost him a lot of platinums despite being low rank.

[Mining(A)^: Can mine an ore vein ranked A and below. Mining speed depends on Dex.]

[Herb Gathering(A)^: Gather herbs ranked A and below. Gathering speed depends on Dex.]

[Lockpicking(A)^: Unlocks locked chests and similar things ranked A and below. Lockpicking speed depends on Dex.]

[Trap Sensing(A)^: Sense traps ranked A and below. Range = 1 Meter/Perc.]

[Magic Trap Sensing(A)^: Sense magical traps and formations ranked A and below. Range = 1 Meter/Perc.]

[Trap Dismantling (A)^: Dismatles traps ranked A and below. Dismantling speed depends on Dex.]

[Magical Trap Dispelling (A)^: Dispels magical traps and formations ranked A and below. Dispelling speed depends on Wis.]

He was very thankful that he found those five additional skills for sale in the trade house, as they will greatly help him in his adventures. Although expensive, it's worth it. He's also thankful for his class, which enables him to use any spell or skill without any restrictions or consequences.

Take for example the camouflage he gave to Darryl; it is mostly for archer or thief classes, but Darryl is a knight, so it will cost him 5x the mana usage, only 20% of the intended effect, and 10x the cooldown. If everyone can just learn any skill or spell they want without any side effects, it will be pandemonium.

Arriving on a nearby hillside, he saw two NPC blips with a teal glow on his map.

"Huh?... A heavenly-ranked NPC? There are actually two of them! It seems to be a neutral one. Quest! There's definitely a quest to be had from them!"

He decided to check them out first before going into his target town. He had a clear excitement in his eyes.

"They should be on top of this hill."

He climbed the hill towards the NPCs. On his map, he didn't see any players or even monsters on this hill. For monsters, it's understandable, as the NPCs have a pretty high rank, but for players? It confused him. Don't you want the quest? Or maybe they don't know how to trigger it? Or no quest to be had at all? It made him anxious, but his excitement never left him.

"This...Nothing? Are they invisible or something? Tch! My Alice wasn't here when I needed her opinion. Haaah..."

He had a frown on his face when he didn't see anything where the NPCs should be. He even tried touching the air to at least feel if there was something there, but still found nothing.

*Bam!*

"No, no, I can't be too overly reliant on her; if I somehow lost her in the future, I might have a hard time moving forward. Alright Chris, there should be a clue here; you just need to use your brains and map properly."

After hitting his forehead with his palm, he left the hilltop and started doing a circle around the hill to look for something that might help him with the use of his map. After a few minutes, he saw a blip on his map, indicating an entrance similar to a hidden realm, but there was nothing there, so he walked towards it to check it out.

"This should be here! Huh? Is this a magic trap?"

[Illusion Formation(B): A formation placed to hide things using illusions. Dispel Chance: 100%]

"Oh, it turns out to be a formation! It seems that my newly learned skill will be needed here. Let's see here..."

The formation was dispelled by him within seconds. And what appeared afterwards was a dark cave entrance.

"A cave, huh? This is about 5 kilometers from the hill. Those NPCs might be underground? The only way to find out is to check this cave out."

Without any hesitation, he entered the cave.

[You entered Ancestral Labyrinths. Monsters: Sonic Bat(C+), Blind Mole(C+), Jagged Worm(C+), Large Spider(B+), Dark Troll(B+), Dark Troll King(A+).]

"Whoa! There's actually a legendary boss here! Even the normal mobs are quite tough. This doesn't seem to be a dungeon but some kind of leveling area."

He marched forward, killing monsters along the way. Just right after entering the cave entrance, his world map was even replaced by the cave system's map, much to his delight.

This labyrinth was a true pain, with hundreds or even thousands of winding paths that, if you don't have a map of it, you'll definitely be lost here, and the monsters are very dangerous too, because they are ambush specialists. He thanked Alice once more in his mind for giving him such an awesome mapping system. The monsters have nowhere to hide.

He estimated that the labyrinth had a radius of about 10 miles. And after a few twists, turns, and massacres, he saw the two NPCs' blips once again and directly headed in the direction where they were.

His current map range was 3 KM, so it wasn't that hard to predict where they would be if they were really underground; he just needed to head in the direction where the hill was.

"Hehe, these trolls and spiders drops some awesome stuff! I'm surprised, no one is farming here... Or maybe this place is untouched?"

[Regeneration(B)^: Passive Skill. Regenerates lost limbs and 1% HP/sec.] Hidden: Regeneration(B)x5 + 25 Spirit Stones = Regeneration(A).

[Troll Fur Pants(B)^Lvl45^: +2,160 PDef/MDef. Regenerates 1%HP/sec. Gives skill Restore.] Hidden Omitted.

[Restore: Intantly heals 10% HP. Cooldown: 10 Minutes.]

[Night Vision(C)Max: Passive Skill. Provides vision at night. Vision range is halved.]

[Entangling Web(C)Max: Auxiliary Skill. Immobilize the target for 15 seconds. Twice the effect on flying units. Cooldown: 20 Seconds, Manacost: 800]

[Spider Silk Gloves(B)^Lvl.45^: +720 PDef/MDef. Halves Spellcasting Speed. +1% Mana/Sec. Gives skill Flash Cast.] Hidden Omitted.

[Flash Cast: Cast any spells instantly and removes it's cooldown at the cost of 5x the mana, lasts for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 1 Hour.]

His happiness was through the roof with the good skillbooks and equipment dropped by the trolls and spiders here, so he took his sweet time killing all the nearby ones he saw first before moving towards the NPCs. They didn't stand a chance at all, even if they were nearly twice his level. His only grievance was the measly 5,000 experience points they provide.

He directly upgraded the 'Regeneration' using the true method to legendary, giving him +1.5 % HP/sec. instead of 1, and directly learned it. The 'Entangling Web' was learned as well, but the pants and gloves are not to his liking because the former was too baggy and the latter was too girly. As for the 'Night Vision', he saved one for himself when his passive skill cap increased in the future. He saved the rest of the extra skillbooks and equipment drops for the future use of his friends; it will be helpful for their future raids.

Arriving where the NPCs should be, a huge lake greets his sight. There was a small circular island in the middle of it that was full of trees. Near the trees, two floating figures can be seen; they were looking at him.

"Kids? Are they ghosts or something? It looks like I have to swim to reach that small island. Good thing there are no monsters underwater..."

*Splash!*

He jumped directly into the water after limbering up quite a bit. He had a feeling that he would get a good quest from those two, which made him excited.